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Hubert H. Humphrey Digitization Project

This is the tenth installment of our NHPRC funded project to digitize
Hubert H. Humphrey's speech texts. This month we focus on the last half of
1968 and the campaign that almost landed Humphrey the highest office in
the country.

The Republican convention of 1968 was held in early August near the resort
city of Miami Beach and "looked like a tranquil interlude in the chaos,
riots, killings, fighting, crime, and war -- all identified with Democrats
-- that filled the year 1968" (Education of a Public Man, p.
286).

A Gallup poll, taken right after the Republican convention, showed Richard Nixon leading Humphrey by sixteen points. Humphrey's staff
was split on whether or not the candidate should break with the
President's policies on Vietnam. Numerous drafts of statements
were proposed to Humphrey, urging him to take his own stand on the issue.

President Johnson was attempting to set up peace talks with
the Vietnamese in Paris. Humphrey was reticent to break with Johnson,
especially if it would undermine the ongoing negotiations. He sought the
President's consent on successive drafts of a compromise statement,
however, and right up until the Democratic convention Humphrey thought
that Johnson would give his consent to a compromise statement on Vietnam.
Walking a tight rope of media scrutiny, Humphrey declared on Meet the Press the
morning of his departure for the convention that "My position on the
Vietnam War and our effort to gain peace is as it has been. I believe that
we could and should stop the remaining bombing of the North if we receive
indication that there is restraint and reasonable response from Hanoi."

Johnson picked the city of Chicago to hold the Democratic convention. Mayor
Richard Daley fully supported this decision. Both men refused to change
the venue even after numerous difficulties presented themselves. Humphrey
later admitted that the city was the worst possible place for the
convention. Striking electricians, telephone workers and taxi drivers made
communication and transportation difficult. Mayor Daley and the police of
Chicago were joined by Army troops and Illinois National Guardmen to handle thousands
of anti-war protestors both before and during the convention.

Tensions rose during the convention. Mayor Daley refused
permits to protestors. Television cameras picked up delegates protesting
for peace inside the convention and demonstrators rioting outside in the
streets and parks of Chicago. Innocent bystanders were threatened and
beaten by police alongside protestors. Humphrey and his family received
death threats. In the midst of this turmoil staff were preparing an
acceptance speech for Humphrey who would inevitably win the nomination. When he
saw the final draft, however, Humphrey felt it did not reflect the events
unfolding around him. Assisted by two of his personal secretaries, he
dictated a new draft right up until the time he had to leave for the
convention hall to give his speech. Humphrey realized on the way to the hall that the prayer
of St. Francis of Assisi had been deleted from the final draft of the
speech by one of his staff members who thought it inappropriate. He called
the Chicago Public Library on the car phone and had them dictate it to
him, asserting that it was indeed an appropriate prayer for so violent and
chaotic a time.

"I
have never had a more difficult assignment," Humphrey recalled of his
speech that night. "It tested every nerve in my body, and it tested my
will, my courage, and my capacity to overcome crisis and difficulty, to
try to sway an audience to my side, to at least calm the fears of some,
fortify the hopes of others, and hold a party together that was on the
verge of an explosion that would have fractured it for a long, long time"
(Education of a Public Man, p. 296).

Humphrey received the Democratic presidential nomination, but he won it
during one of the largest demonstrations of the century. He tried to pull the party together, but the
protestors and young people of America found him old fashioned and
out of touch, especially when he refused to join them in the parks and on the streets outside
of the convention as his rival Eugene McCarthy had done and instead took the side of Mayor
Daley and the police against the anti-war protestors. In an interview with Hugh Downs of the
Today Show the last day of the convention Humphrey explained
that the "tactics of rowdism do not add to a convention" and that history
is "strewn with the wreckage of self-righteous militant minorities, who
thought that they had a sort of a monopoly on truth."

Though he spoke
strongly against the unrest, his own campaign was in shambles. His staffer
Ted Van Dyke remembered: "we left Chicago fifteen points down, with blood
in the streets, conflict in the convention hall, everything at rock bottom
and not a penny in the bank by the way" (Hubert H. Humphrey: The Art
of the Possible by Mick Caouette).

After the convention, Humphrey and his campaign floundered. The
campaign kickoff officially began on September 9th in Philadelphia, the
city where he first burst onto the national scene in 1948. The speech Humphrey gave that day
focused on the choices Americans had to make in the conflict-ridden era of
1968. His organization, however, failed to provide buttons and pennants
for the occasion and the crowd was all too eager to shout "Dump the Hump" at
the candidate.

As the campaign went on, Humphrey's refusal to distinguish
himself from the Johnson administration, of which he was still a part,
remained a stumbling block. Protesters and critics met
him at every stop. In a speech at
the Western States Water and Power Conference in Sioux Falls, South
Dakota after detailing a ten-point program for the revitalization of
rural America, Humphrey told the crowd his life was "dedicated to works of
peace, the Peace Corps, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Food for Peace, The
Disarmament Agency, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." He stated: "I
took as a top item on my agenda when I become your President on January
20, 1969, I put it at the top of my list to find a way to end this war and
to make this country once again united." The crowd responded strongly when
he mentioned peace and it became clear to Humphrey and his campaign
managers that this was the issue above any other that resonated with his
audiences.

By the end of September, Humphrey knew he needed to make his
own statement on Vietnam despite what the President said or how the
negotiations in Paris were going. In Seattle he faced the worst heckling
of the campaign. The usual boos and shouts of the crowd were drowned out
this time by one heckler with a bull horn. As the television cameras
watched, Humphrey asked the man to "go ahead and make your speech." The
man did, speaking about the scream of death, the wound of war, police
brutality in Chicago, and of Humphrey's crimes against humanity by being
complicit with the war in Vietnam. Though the police and Secret Service
finally removed the protestors from the Civic Center
and Humphrey was able to give his speech afterwards, the moment unnerved him and he resolved then
to say what was on his mind and what he felt even if he lost the
election.

On September 30th in Salt Lake City Humphrey gave this
televised speech to the American
people explaining his position on Vietnam. The speech had been hotly
debated by his staff. They had argued for hours over wording and nuances
of meaning. In the end Humphrey drafted a new speech and gave his trusted
advisors a last look, then called Johnson fifteen minutes before he
delivered it to tell him what he would say. After Humphrey assured him that it would not
embarrass him or jeopardize Paris negotiations Johnson replied "I gather
you're not asking my advice." Humphrey gave the speech in
one take and afterwards felt that he had finally gotten to say what he
wanted about the war. He had finally made his own stand.

After the televised Salt Lake City speech, Humphrey's campaign began to
gain momentum. "Weeks of struggling, trying to catch up for lost time
frantically putting together an organization, always short of finances,
error compounded by error, led suddenly to a building momentum, to larger
and larger crowds, to excitement and enthusiasm, to a feeling of possible
success (Education of a Public Man, p. 303).

Eugene McCarthy finally gave Humphrey his endorsement in the last days of
October. A few days before the election President Johnson announced a
breakthrough in the negotiations in Paris, saying that the bombing of
North Vietnam would stop and that peace talks were scheduled for days
after the election.

By November 3rd Johnson himself actively campaigned with Humphrey, joining
him for an event at the Houston Astrodome.
Accompanied by Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle and surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd
Humphrey and Johnson had put their
differences aside for the good of the party. In his
speech Humphrey proclaimed that he
would always be Johnson's faithful friend and proud of it, and during the remaining months
of his presidency, his loyal Vice President.

Humphrey and Nixon were in a dead heat in the polls. The hope of peace talks with the North
Vietnamese and an end to the war may have handed Humphrey the presidency. Behind the scenes the
Nixon campaign convinced the Vietnamese in Paris to stay away from the
ongoing negotiations, promising that a Nixon administration would give them a
better deal after the election. On election day the numbers showed that Nixon had
beaten Humphrey by less than one-half of one percent of the popular vote.

In his concession speech Humphrey said
that he "couldn't possibly be any happier than in the knowledge that we
had done the right thing. We have said what we believed, we have spoken
the hard facts of our country as we saw them. We have offered what we
thought were the alternatives and the solutions. We placed our case before
the American people. We did it in a short period of time against
tremendous odds, and all I can say tonight to the American people is they
have been mighty good to us. They have given us a great vote of confidence
in this popular vote."

In his autobiography, however, Humphrey admitted that "my dreams and hopes
were smashed in a year when so much more in America was destroyed"
(Education of a Public Man, p. 305).

Humphrey gave only a handful of
speeches during the remainder of 1968. Exhausted and depressed by the narrowness of his defeat
he caught the flu for the third time that year and began to re-evaluate his life. It would be the
first time in 25 years that he had not held an elective public office.

These speech texts, as well as all of Humphrey's speeches from 1941-1968
are linked to the inventory of his Speech Text
Files. More of Humphrey's speeches will be made available each
month throughout this project. Look for the years 1969-1972 of Humphrey's
speeches in July!

This project was awarded the support of a $46,000 grant from the National
Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) administered by the
National Archives.

Learn more about how the NHPRC helps preserve records of enduring national historical
value and promotes their public access and interpretation through archival
and documentary programs.

Correspondence, minutes, financial data,
scrapbooks of clippings and ephemera, reports, notes, and
membership records of the Minnesota State Division and local
branches of a national organization for college-educated women
founded in 1881 to promote equity for all women and girls,
lifelong education, and positive societal change.

Correspondence and subject files relating
to all aspects of the institution's management, including general
administration, personnel, patients/residents, medical service,
research, library service, and relations with other hospitals, the
legislature, and various supervisory agencies.

Personal papers of the owner and
president of a Minneapolis-based employee-assistance firm,
reflecting her personal interest in and study of social services,
feminism, and civil rights in the 1960s and 1970s.

Newspaper and magazine articles,
correspondence, printed materials, photographs, film recording,
and memorabilia of Michael J. Dowling, a Minnesota politician,
newspaper publisher, businessman, and spokesman for the physically
handicapped, who as a boy lost three of his limbs to frostbite,
and of his wife Jennie.

Examination questions and scoring keys
for elementary (grades 7 and 8) and high school subjects. Also
includes, for 1941, a separate volume containing examination rules
and regulations, and copies of forms, as well as examinations and
keys.

Constitution, bylaws, directories,
minutes, handbooks, reports, newsletters and scrapbooks of a
women's club organized in 1957 to pursue home and family study and
to aid in philanthropic work in western Hennepin County,
Minnesota.

Correspondence, diaries, newspaper
clippings, scrapbooks, printed materials, genealogical
information, and some early family papers of Robbins Gilman and
his wife Catheryne Cooke Gilman of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Also
includes papers documenting the activities of their son Logan
Drinker and his wife Rhoda Raasch Gilman and their daughters Betsy
(Elizabeth) and Carolyn, and papers of Leonard O. and Rhoda
(Kimbro) Raasch, Rhoda Gilman's parents. Papers from other family
members and related families are also present.

Publications either created or collected
by the Council pertaining to all aspects of its duties and
responsibilities. Included are incomplete runs of the Council's
News Letter (1975-1980), News Briefs (1975-1980), and Futurity
(1990-1995); annual (1990, 2001-2002, 2004-2007), quarterly
(1977-1981), and program (1984-2007) performance reports; annual
work plans (1980-2007); monthly activity reports (1987-2007);
three-year state plans (1975-1978, 1980-2000); the Council's May
1976 philosophy and mission statement; and a variety of related
manuals, instructor's guides, guidelines, analysis, and reports.
The latter cover such diverse topics as facilitated communication,
medical assistance, legislation, positive learning, school
integration, Welsch v. Noot, state hospitals, community
involvement, early intervention, the state schools for the blind
and deaf, quality indicators, individual plans, education and
training opportunities, and technology.

Constitutions and bylaws; meeting and
convention agendas, programs, minutes, and reports; newsletters;
correspondence; party platforms and campaign literature; leaflets;
articles; and other papers relating to the Green Party of
Minnesota; its predecessor, the Minnesota Greens Confederation;
Twin Cities Greens; and the Green Party of St. Paul.

Constitutions, bylaws, minutes, annual
reports, membership directories, newsletters, correspondence,
subject files, news clippings and photographs of a statewide
organization of wives of lawyers and judges. The organization is
devoted to the betterment of the legal profession, social
activities, community issues, and pro bono work.

Mainly documents from File No. 3220-0,
containing records covering the division's land acquisition in
general, including budget materials and land acquisition guides.
Included are materials documenting land placed in abeyance for the
Birch Lake, Land O'Lakes, and Sand Dunes state forests and the
Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest, and tract files
for each parcel of land the division attempted to acquire for the
Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest.

Bulletins and newsletters relating to
various aspects of the district's administration. Includes the
School Bulletin (Official Bulletin) of the Department of Education
(1917-1932), School Bulletin (1947-1961), and Trends in Saint Paul
Public Schools (1961-1967).

The indexes list surname, case file
number, and admission and discharge dates. The registers list all
patients admitted to the hospital and record case number, name,
county, admission date, age, civil (i.e., marital) condition,
occupation, education (grade level), religion, habits (temperate
or intemperate), nativity (state or country), nativity of parents,
diagnosis, suicidal or homicidal, number of attack, number of
admission (i.e., whether being readmitted), age at first attack,
duration of insanity, time in hospital, date discharged, result
(condition of dismissal), and observations.

Black and white photographs of
reformatory inmates, although not all inmate numbers are
represented. Each photograph may include brief identifying
information such as name, aliases, birth date, race, height,
weight, build, eyes, hair, complexion, and date of admission.

Records of an organization of United
States Navy veterans who served during World War II on the U.S.S.
Minneapolis, a heavy cruiser that participated in the battles of
the Coral Sea, Midway, Tassafaronga, the Philippine Sea, Guam, and
Surigao Strait.

Letter from A.L. Collins to A. Catlin
describing a visit to Saint Paul and environs; discussing his land
entries in western Wisconsin and his interest in "half-breed"
lands located near Red Wing, Minnesota; and his ideas about a
possible railroad line between Superior and Hudson, Wisconsin.